The pound sterling is one of the European currencies which used to assert itself against the US dollar. However, today the British pound lost ground on Forex. The weakness was caused by the publication of feeble data on the manufacturing sector of the United Kingdom. The Office for National Statistics presented mixed data for May.
So the industrial sector of the United Kingdom expanded 0.4% despite the consensus of a 0.2% decline. At the same time, the manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed down a pace of growth.
The consensus suggested a steady positive trend. So, the manufacturing output was expected to rise 0.1%. However, the British manufacturing sector shrank greatly its production volume in May by 0.6% month-on-month.
According to the report, the expansion of British industry was mainly driven by the oil and gas sector. Amid the current energy prices, traders considered the news to be negative that pushed the demand for the pound sterling down.
The pound/dollar pair dropped to a three-week low. The downward bias stalled at the level of 1.5500.
In addition to the macroeconomic reports, the pound sterling was knocked down by a fall of the euro/dollar pair. The most popular pair crossed over downward the psychological level of 1.10.